Volume i. of the Transactions of the Buteshire Natural History Society (Rothesay, Chronicle Office, 1908, pp. 76, price to non-members, 2s. 6d.) merits the welcome due to a new arrival. It offers a prospect of occasional service to archaeology. The Society, as appears from the constitution adopted in 1905, was formed with the approval of the remaining members of the earlier Archaeological and Physical Society of Bute, for the purpose of the study not only of local natural history but also of archaeology and cognate subjects. In the present volume two papers are of a historical type, one being Mr. Murdoch Mackenzie's garrulous but interesting collection of reminiscences of Edmund Kean's residence at Rothesay, the other Mr. A. D. Macbeth's well constructed chronicle-memoir of the M'Caws of Garrachty in the south-west end of Bute. A few old parchments and papers beginning with a sasine of 1507 enable Mr. Macbeth to present a considerable body of vouched fact regarding the M'Caws, and incidentally regarding land tenure and agricultural conditions in the island. A certain cheerfulness in disagreeing with Dr. Hewison is a prominent characteristic of the essay. An odd Christian name of the M'Caw family appears variously as Gillenow, Gilnow, Gilnew, Gilnef, and Gilnaov-suggested to be 'Giolle naomh,' pronounced 'gillyneeve,' and to mean 'the saint's man.'

The American Historical Review for July contains the conclusion of a paper by Professor George B. Adams on the 'Origin of the English Constitution.' It lays great stress on the continuity visible in the expedients adopted to control the sovereign, and thus closely links with Magna Carta the baronial scheme of 1244, the Provisions of Oxford in 1258, and the Ordinances of 1310. Professor Beazley, almost as much historical as geographical, describes the eastward movement of Russia, chiefly through Novgorod, prior to 1500. Other studies deal with the administrative polity of Napoleon-generally just and vigorous as well as original and with the historical economics of the slave question in the southern States.

The American Historical Review (Oct.) contains a summary view of the recent international historical congress at Berlin, and prints one of the papers, being Ambassador Hill's discussion on the Ethical Function of the Historian. It is somewhat of a protest against statistical and mathematical deductions, and indicates a strong preference for human and individual aspects of life rather than for economic and physical generalizations as the true province of history. Alongside of it is a demonstration of the part played by economic factors in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, shewing the effect the many lettres de maîtrise granted to Protestants had in fomenting the opposition to them which culminated in the disastrous revocation by Louis XIV. in 1685 of Henry IV.'s edict of tolerance in 1598.

The Iowa Journal of History and Politics for October completes an instructive narrative of the liquor legislation of Iowa. The last section describes the prohibition movement ending in the Amendment of 1882, prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicants, carried by 155,000 votes over 125,000, but declared invalid by the Supreme Court.

Re

enacted in another form in 1884, prohibition was put on trial under stormy conditions to begin with, and ultimately with results so checkered that campaigns of debate, agitation, and reaction ended in the Mulct Law of 1894, whereby, without abolishing prohibition, the legislature provided that on payment of a tax of 600 dollars a trader in liquor should be exempt from prosecution if he filed the written consent of a majority, or in small towns 65 per cent., of the electorate. A series of maps forms a capital diagram of the effects of prohibition and local option. Mr. Dan E. Clark has justification for believing that his article contains matter of value for guidance in liquor legislation.

In the Revue Historique (Sep.-Oct.) two soldiers, General Dagobert (1736-94) and General Reynier (1771-1814), afford scope for sketches in military biography, and Jerome Lucchésini for a study in diplomacy, 1786-92. Promise of no small interest is given by the announcement of a number of record-notes by Monsieur E. Déprez on the English wars in France in the fourteenth century. The series begins with a notice of the double treason—first to Philippe le Bel and afterwards to Edward III.—of Godefroi de Harcourt, who went over to the English side in 1345, but, quickly repenting, returned penitentially submissive, la touaille double mise de ses propres mains en son col,' to the French king in 1347. A second note gives the corrected text of the famous treaty of 1358 (erroneously dated 1351 in Rymer's Foedera) between Charles of Navarre and Edward III. M. Déprez does not mention the fact that M. Luce's paper, establishing the true date, was popularized in his La France pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans, first series.

In the Revue des Etudes Historiques (Sept.-Oct.) the French views on British foreign politics-the financial question of the Canadian bills, the 'eternelle affaire' of Newfoundland, the destruction of the port of Dunkirk, and the East Indian disputes-are interestingly presented by M. Coquelle in a sketch of the Comte de Guerchy, ambassador of France at London from 1763 to 1767. Guerchy's correspondence indicates that had Pitt's brain not given way in 1766 he would have led Britain into a war which in M. Coquelle's opinion would have been equally a colonial and a maritime disaster to France. Guerchy retired in July, 1767, to be worried into his grave by a poetical blackmailer with a satirical libel in ten cantos, La Guerchiade, which he offered to withhold from the press for 100 guineas, but the threatened publication of which Guerchy's death in September, 1767, forestalled. Another article discusses in the defence interest General Pichegru's treason to the Republic in 1795-7-the incriminating circumstances including his relations with the British ministry financially and otherwise.

Queries and Replies

PRINTERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW (S.H.R. i. 457-9; v. 369, 501). To Mr. James Coutts, formerly of the University of Glasgow, we are indebted for the following notes supplementing the information already given.

Under date 1st May, 1827, it is stated in the University Records that a letter was received from Mr. Andrew Duncan resigning his position as University Printer, and that the letter was ordered to lie on the table. This brings Mr. Duncan's holding of the appointment down to 1827, instead of 1824 as formerly noted, and it may be that the appointment was not terminated for some considerable time after 1st May, 1827.

Mr. Khull was mentioned as Printer as late as 1837, but Mr. Coutts has now found a pamphlet in Gaelic entitled 'Combradh mu lehor Na H-Eaglais,' dated 1843, bearing the imprint Edward Khull, Printer to the University, Dunlop Street.

COLLATE. What is the signification of this place-name? The name used to be applied to a few houses, now called Holmend, in Moffat, at the junction of the roads from Moffat to Selkirk and from Moffat to Carlisle. Between the town-foot of Moffat and Collate, the Selkirk road runs along a number of fields known as the Viccarlands; these Viccarlands, previous to the Reformation, were the property of the Church, and under the jurisdiction of the Diocese and Bishop of Glasgow. Millbank, Moffat. JOHN T. JOHNSTON.

SIMSONS OF ISLAY. Andrew Simson was Master of the Grammar School, Perth, 1550 to 1560. Other members of this family were, John Simson, 1667-1740, Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow; Robert Simson, 1687-1768, Professor of Mathematics in the University of Glasgow; and Thomas Simson, 1696-1764, Professor of Medicine in the University of St. Andrews. What relation were these Simsons to the Simsons of Bowmore, Islay, who were descendants from the Rev. David Simson, minister of Killean and Southend in the presbytery of Kintyre from 1656 to 1672? M. G. C.

HIGHLAND TARTANS. I would be glad to know of any Bibliography of Works on this subject later and more complete than that in D. W. Stewart's Old and Rare Scottish Tartans, 1893.

J. H. MAYNE CAMPBELL.